Court orders couple resentenced

A federal appeals court has ordered Chantal and William McCorkle -- the jet-setting TV infomercial gurus from Lake Mary serving 24 years in prison for a $36 million scam -- be resentenced.

The couple, who were convicted and sentenced on money-laundering and fraud charges, will be back in Orlando's federal court in the near future for the second time in as many years.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which has jurisdiction over the Middle District Court of Florida, in an opinion released Friday cites new court guidelines that would have been more favorable to the McCorkles at their original sentencing.

"The district court sentenced both appellants using a mandatory-guidelines scheme and enhanced their sentences based on facts they neither admitted nor the jury found," three appeals judges wrote. "Moreover, the court [in Orlando] repeatedly expressed misgivings about the severity of the sentences it was handing down."

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January made sentencing guidelines advisory, not mandatory. In the federal system, juries consider guilt or innocence, but judges make findings that affect prison time, such as the number of victims in a fraud, or the defendant's prior criminal history.

It will be the second resentencing in two years for the couple, who divorced while imprisoned in 2002.

On Sept. 11, 2003, Chief U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett -- the top judge in the district -- left their sentences intact, saying the crimes warranted the time.

Mark Horwitz, Chantal McCorkle's attorney through her seven-week trial in 1998 and subsequent appeals, said his 37-year-old client has a better chance of getting a lower sentence now. "It's disturbing, and I'm hoping it will be reduced significantly," Horwitz said.

Manny Hernandez, a Longwood attorney who represents William McCorkle, said the ruling "gives us an opportunity to hopefully convince her [Fawsett] to give a sentence that will be more reasonable and just."

The McCorkles, formerly of Lake Mary, made millions running TV ads that touted a get-rich-quick scheme through real-estate transactions. Using their business, Cash Flow Systems, the McCorkles lured more than 2,500 investors, whose investments were later laundered through offshore bank accounts.

It was one of those accounts that led to the downfall of famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, who represented William McCorkle, 39, during his trial. Bailey was convicted in 2003 of illegally taking $2 million from a $7 million legal-defense fund he set up for the couple in the Cayman Islands.

In March, the U.S. Attorney's Office distributed more than $6 million in seized cash from the McCorkles to the FBI, the IRS, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the state Attorney General's Office.

A sentencing date for the McCorkles -- who are in federal prisons in California and Georgia -- has not been set.